Epic Hurricane Surf

September: As one of our New Jersey correspondents Jon Coen once said: “You can tell how good a hurricane season is by the amount of frothing e-mails/ voicemails/ texts you receive regarding it.” If that’s the barometer, from Gustav to Kyle and everything in between, 2008 was officially a banger. A week in the fall didn’t go by without messages boasting all-time career sessions and blown out spaghetti arms. One friend from Florida sounded blissfully confused when he said he’d “surfed like every day for a month straight.” Of course, like any group of jaded surf editors, we were slightly skeptical of the claims. That is, until we saw the pictures. JPEG’s of reeling empty lineups and locals crammed into perfect, almond-shaped barrels buffeted our inboxes.